On Friday, it’s expected that many avid poker players and fans will gather at the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square in London. One day before the start of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, poker legend Doyle Brunson will take on online poker prodigy and 2007 WSOPE Main Event winner Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad in a heads-up match.
The classic battle of the ages will be determined by the winner of a heads-up No Limit Hold’em event. The person who wins two out of three games will be crowned the winner. The event begins at 1:00pm local time and is expected to draw a throng of spectators as well as many members of the media, who were alerted via a press release distributed by the WSOP on Wednesday. The event also pits arguably the top poker player in all of Europe (Obrestad) against the iconic American gambler, Brunson. The Texas Dolly will also sign copies of his book following the epic engagement.
Brunson’s list of accolades could occupy hundreds of articles here on Poker News Daily. His signature book “Super System,” which he wrote in conjunction with Mike Caro, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, and David Sklansky, is considered to be the Bible of poker. He followed the 1979 “Super System” release up with “Super System II,” which was published in 2004.
Brunson is tied with Johnny Chan for the second most number of bracelets won by a single person at the World Series of Poker with 10. He won the WSOP Main Event in 1977 and 1978. In fact, his first six recorded WSOP cashes were all for bracelet wins. He won subsequent pieces of gold hardware in 1991, 1998, 2003, and 2005. He finished 16th in the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Championship this year.
Brunson won the 2004 Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker for his first World Poker Tour title, earning $1.2 million in the process. He is the original road gambler and the namesake behind his very own online poker room, Doyles Room. Also visible on the online poker site are his son, Todd Brunson, Caro, and Hoyt Corkins.
Obrestad won the 2007 WSOPE Main Event in its inaugural edition. She defeated John Tabatabai heads-up, taking down £1 million. She’s a proud member of Team Betfair, which is the official sponsor of the World Series of Poker Europe, and has become the symbol of the rising generation of poker players. Online, she’s won the PokerStars $100 rebuy on several occasions and took down the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt Poker in July for $51,000, nine months after winning it for a first time. In late August, she won the $200 buy-in $20,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker, padding her bankroll with another $35,000.
In an interview with Card Player Magazine last August, Obrestad claims that she has never deposited money online. Instead, she built her bankroll up by cashing in freerolls. She also made waves in the online poker world by winning a $4 buy-in, 180 person sit and go tournament without looking at her cards. The bottom line is that she will be a force to be reckoned with when she sits down opposite Brunson on Friday in London.
